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Auchentoshan Triple Wood

In 2016 I visited Auchentoshan distillery and did their “Ultimate Tour”. As the first tour I ever did it was probably a mistake because the time, range of products and knowledge I got from one morning in Clydebank ruined me for the other tours I have done since which were, admittedly, all much cheaper and shorter experiences.

I previously reviewed the distillery cask bottling with the stand out bottling being the 1975 vintage which was well over my budget. I know a lot of bloggers and vbloggers always say some exotic mentally priced bottle is the best thing ever but this really was something very special. The extra long term maturation in a used ex-bourbon cask against relatively neutral Auchentoshan spirit was very unusal and sweet.

Back in the realms of affordability though, this engineered triple wood expression at around £45 couldn’t be more different but still a good one to buy.

The Dram

The Auchentoshan Triple wood is matured in three different types of casks as the name would suggest. All the barrels used in the recipe are between 9 and 11 years old and are either ex-Bourbon, ex-Oloroso sherry or finally ex-PX. I am slightly hazy on what the tour guide said on the day but I think the bourbon and oloroso sherry are married together before a final maturation together in some ex-PX casks. It is bottled at 43% ABV and available widely for around £45.

The colour of this whisky is natural and I believe it is only lightly filtered as well. All in all quite a decent spec list although the alcohol level is quite low. As an aside, Auchentoshan is only of the few distillery shops I know where the bottles can be found cheaper than online. One to remember if you are passing through on business or live nearby.

Tasting Notes

Colour – walnut wood

Nose – Hazelnuts and stewed fruits with a heavily brewed pot of tea. There is some furniture polish and leather cleaner as well.

Palate – More of the nuts with a twist of pepper, cardamon and cloves. The mouthfeel is quite weak though and there is a hole in the middle with little going on. There is some milk chocolate though and cocoa beans.

Finish – A good length to the finish and it brings in some of the influence from the bourbon cask. A touch of caramel and a touch of honey with more of the rich dark chocolate notes as well giving a bitter end.

Final Thoughts

With the triple distilled nature of Auchentoshan it can be commonly slated for being a bit of a blunt instrument. I don’t think that is any bad thing and just means that a good Auchi tends to be a very wood influenced dram. This one is very dry and intense with the PX sherry cask being very overpowering of the other 2 cask types. That is probably a waste of all that other maturation so perhaps more balance could be achieved with a little less time in the PX.